book data
545 ratings, 3.74 average rating, 38 reviews
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published
May 30th 1996
(first published 1967)
by Touchstone
binding
Paperback, 192 pages
setting
Unknown
isbn
0684824795
(isbn13: 9780684824796)
description
An inventive, satiric modern retelling of the classic fairy tale provides an incisive and biting commentary on the absurdities and complexities of...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 674)
Read in October, 2008
Not my favorite Barthelme work, but a good read nonetheless. If you've only read his short stories so far and are considering this as your leap into Barthelme noveldom, please reconsider and start with The Dead Father - that, in my opinion, was a much more solid piece of work. If you've already finished that, go on to Paradise. Finally, having read those two, it doesn't matter which novel you pursue - I think the others (including this one) are all a bit lower down on the wonderful scale. No...more
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An absurdist take on a classic story. Probably the best way to learn how to read Barthelme.
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Read in April, 2005
I give this book ZERO stars. Of all of the books I have ever read, I liked this the least. I have always disliked post-modernism for its deconstructive and irreverent approach to literature but Barthelme really pushed me to the limits of my tolerance for the movement. To meaningfully position this comment, I should add that I chose to study English literature as both an undergrad and graduate student because of modernism, a movement that celebrates (and in my view represents the very culminat...more
Read in December, 2008
A delightful post-modernist/deconstructivist take on the classic story. Equal parts comedy and tragedy. Barthelme has a gift for playing with words that keep this book moving and keep the mood light. Like DeLillo on laughing gas.
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Read in June, 2007
Donald Barthelme is pretty consistently structurally playful and silly, but also consistently trying to write humanity, and does so surprisingly well without dropping the smile.
I prefer The Dead Father to this one -- while both share his sexual frankness, absurdity, fracture and (sometimes anyway) opacity of language, Dead Father moved more. Snow White is fun and youthful, but less pointed. Which is to say, I'm turning into an old man, who demands weight even of his Barhtelme.
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I prefer The Dead Father to this one -- while both share his sexual frankness, absurdity, fracture and (sometimes anyway) opacity of language, Dead Father moved more. Snow White is fun and youthful, but less pointed. Which is to say, I'm turning into an old man, who demands weight even of his Barhtelme.
...more
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Read in July, 2008
Holy mackerel. Little moments of a modern fairy tale pieced together by sex (and the American Dream?). Absurd, pixelated, perfect. Funny to think that the idea of fairy tale love and romance has changed so much over time. For a while Snow White hangs her long ebony hair Rapunzel-like out of her window. Hundreds of people walk by daily, staring up, gawking at this funny site. But no prince takes notice. Then she takes off her shirt and flashes her boobs and, finally, gets some attention. I can't...more
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I learned that Snow White is a bit of a slut. An entertaining read, but a bit hard to follow.
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one of the cleverest & funniest books i've ever read. a post-modern retelling of Snow White. all the characters except snow white have new names: the prince (or maybe anti-prince) is Paul, the wicked queen is Jane, the dwarves all have names. a feast for anyone who loves the english language.
"Now I have been left sucking the mop again," Jane blurted out in the rare-poison room of her mother's magnificent duplex apartment on a tree-lined street in a desirable location. "...more
"Now I have been left sucking the mop again," Jane blurted out in the rare-poison room of her mother's magnificent duplex apartment on a tree-lined street in a desirable location. "...more
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Read in September, 2008
I can best describe Barthelme's style as "slideshow fiction." Narrative *click* character sketch *click* moment of silence *click* and so forth. Repeated images, half-sketched drawings, empty gazes, personal histories, barely strung together. Existentialist attitude merges with a very contemporary-American sense of detachment and irony... impressive considering the book is 40 years old. Snow White does awfully well as a bored young woman surrounded by boring young men.
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I found this as I was going through my crates upon crates of books from in storage. I honestly don't know what possessed me to try so many times to like Donald Barthelme. In this novel, the boldface pronouncements on history and philosophy, which read like the titles interspersed throughout a few of Jean-Luc Godard's movies, are the most insightful part of the book - the rest is pretty uninteresting, except for those people, bless them, who think otherwise.
Read in January, 2008
I've lately started enjoying most post-modern deconstructionalist lit, and this is great. Barthelme is great anyway, and in this one you get the Snow White fairy tale in modernized, slightly disjointed vignettes. The broader story is hard to follow (you're helped by knowing it already), but it's peripheral to the beauty and wonder you get in the moment-to-moment writing. Definitely not for everyone.
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"Really left me sucking the mop."
If you're out there and I lent you my copy, I want it back, please.
If you're out there and I lent you my copy, I want it back, please.
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Humorus, silly, abstract. . .all together, your ideal post-modern work of art. I do like the concept that he had for this, however: not remaking the story nor commenting upon it, but attempting to recreate something in between the former and the latter in order to make up a new interpretation as a by-product. In some way it ends up being all three possibilities concurrently.
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My second favorite novel and a relic of 60s experimentalism. It falls somewhere between poetry and prose,and has something to offend everyone. Don't expect to understand it until you've read it a few times. If you don't laugh in the first few pages, don't keep going. If you get through it, you'll be rewarded with a new vocabulary for what's wrong with America.
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Read in October, 2007
recommends it for:
little people
Whenever I fall in love, I split into innumerable elves. We have town meetings and discuss the current crisis, some take up odd jobs or go on walkabouts. But regardless of how we feel about each other, even in the hard times, we are always ready to slit Prince Charming's throat the second he shows his fucking face.
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i think this is the highlight of barthelme's work. very impressionistic writing but definitely not as challenging as william burroughs. there are some tragically beautiful characters portreyed in humorous ways under the convention of snow white and the seven dwarves. excellent book.
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very un-fairytale-like retold fairy tale. interesting, but lacking the predictable whimsy I (personally) expect from any fairy story. a dear friend gave this book to me and try as i might, it is just too postmodern for me!
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If you tire of writers who write to write, of writers like hollywood movies, of scenes devoid of feeling, you may once again acquaint yourself with why we ever started telling stories in the first place, with Barthelme.
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This novel is only a novel because it can be assumed the readership is familiar with the story of Snow White and her dwarf companions. That said, it is bizarre and engaging and fun.
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Read in January, 1997
The first book I found by Barthelme while searching for books by Barthes. I was hooked by the first page. All over the map, it is a great introduction to Barthelme.
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"We regarded each other sitting around the breakfast table with its big cardboard boxes of "Fear," "Chix," and "Rats.""
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